The white head football coach of the Titans is replaced by an African-American coach from North Carolina, Coach Herman Boone, who is played in the movie by Denzel Washington. There are deep tensions on the team, between black and white players, between black and white parents, between black and white coaches. There are deep tensions in the city.
Then the team goes on a two-week training camp--a boot camp of sorts--in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania--the site of the deadliest battle in the Civil War, a site of massive casualties for both Union and Confederate troops over three days. It is there, at training camp in Gettysburg, where our scene begins. Let’s watch!
The message for these young men was that, just like the soldiers in the Civil War, they, too, were part of a struggle that was much bigger than themselves. A monumental struggle. Something long--spanning history. Something epic. Something that has spanned the arc of our nation’s history into their own time and even into our time.
Eventually, though, these young men began to understand. They began to come together. And in the process, they were changed. Their coaches and parents were changed. The entire community was changed.
You and I are also part of something epic. Something monumental. A part of a story that spans the entire arc of history, beginning with the creation of our world, the deliverance of Israel out of slavery, the coming of the Messiah to, once and for all, deliver all people from sin into forgiveness, from death into life, from slavery into freedom.
You and I are part of God’s story.
Today, we begin the liturgical season of Lent. In the early church, Lent was a time of learning, just like a training camp. A journey for those new in the faith to prepare for their baptisms and to receive holy communion for the first time.
During this time, they would immerse themselves in the three traditional disciplines of Lent--almsgiving, or caring for the poor; fasting; and immersing themselves in Scripture and prayer.
At the end of Lent came the Three Days, or the Triduum. The Triduum was one service that began on Maundy Thursday, continued on Good Friday, and culminated with Easter Vigil on the evening before Easter Sunday. During the Three Days, these new believers would remember the movements of Christ during Holy Week--the Passover meal, Jesus’ death on the cross, and his resurrection. And, at the culmination of the Easter Vigil, they would be baptized. And they would celebrate how they had been joined with Christ in his death and resurrection and delivered from sin and death to righteousness and freedom.
The key to this Lenten journey for the new believers was conversion, or as the ancients put it, a change, a turning from one way of walking to another, from one way of life to a new way. For these new believers, Christianity was not simply something more to do or to take on, but it was a complete change, a totally new way of living. And, in a pagan world, a world where Christians were a very small minority, it was a change that could also result in their death.
Like those early believers, we’re on a journey, too. Now, it isn’t a journey that, for most of us, will result in a martyr’s death. But, it is a journey of dying. Dying to our old selves, dying to our old way of living. And, for us, Lent is an opportunity in that journey to step back a bit, both as individuals and as a community. To step back and take an inventory. To take an inventory of our hearts.
In the last verse of our lesson for this evening, we read these words, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
What does your heart look like? Where is your treasure?
In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes that “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
You are the righteousness of God. Where your heart is reflects how you are living into being that righteousness of God. How are you living now? Are you living in a way that reflects the wonder, the gratitude, the joy that is our life in Christ? Too often our lives rest in the anticipation of a future life with God, rather than living life in the here and now and in the assurance of God’s presence in the here and now.
Now, living into that wonder and gratitude and joy that is our life in Christ doesn’t ignore the brokenness or the suffering that is so present in our world today. It doesn’t deny our own brokenness or our own complicity in that suffering.
Yet wrapped into these realistic truths of our broken human existence is a greater truth--the truth of the resurrection.
In Romans 6, Paul writes, “We have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we may live a new way of life.”
Today, on Ash Wednesday, we remember our mortality. Without Christ, we face a sure and permanent death. Yet, death is not the end for us. In our baptism, we have been joined with Christ in his death and his resurrection. Lent doesn’t have to be a season of mourning and sacrifice. It is okay for us to have joy during Lent, to lean into the life that is ours as resurrected people of Christ. To step back and to wonder and see with gratitude where God is at work in our lives, in our church, in our community and in our world.
And it is okay to sing.
So, sing! Sing during this season of Lent. Sing the song of the epic story that spans the entire arc of salvation history. Sing the song of deliverance sung by Miriam at the Red Sea, by Mary at the angel’s announcement, by the angels at Christ’s birth, by Simeon in witness to the Messiah, by the early Christians in a hostile, pagan world, by Luther in a medieval world of reform, by the faithful leaders of the Civil Rights movement as they marched for freedom, by the whole church today and by all the church triumphant.
At the end of Lent, you will look back and you will see how you have been changed by this song. This song of joy and wonder. This song of humble awe and gratitude. This song of Jesus, who is with us here and now, and forever into all eternity. Amen.
Preached March 1, 2017, at Grace and Glory Lutheran Church, Goshen, KY.
Ash Wednesday
Readings: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Psalm 51:1-17; 2 Corinthians 5:20b - 6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
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